Monday 6th June 2005 Grudziadz to Chełmno.

Rosy leaving the arm at Grudziadz

11.5º C overnight. Cold and breezy with grey scudding clouds and occasional bright spells. The water level in the Wisła had dropped another 5 cms overnight. Rosy went out of the arm first, turning right heading downstream with the flow to turn upstream out in the river. Mike powered gently round the corner, turning left into the flow, out of the mucky hole we’d tied in overnight. I made a cup of tea as we went upriver. The local authorities had been busy building new concrete capped groynes both

Sand quay at Grudziadz

up- and down-stream of Grudziadz. A pair of goosanders were using one as a diving platform until we passed them, then they flew off. Criss-crossing the river started again. Not long after we set off another little yacht came flying down the river with the flow. A sandbank was showing its head above water at KP 829.5. Two swans and a load of gulls were sitting on it. At KP 828 we caught the edge of another sandbank, so I warned Bill on VHF to keep off to our left and Mike backed off it, sending up

Bridge over the Vistula at Grudziadz

clouds of sand, into deeper water. We had been in direct line with the markers. Another one nearly caught us between KP 826/827, where we had to back off yet again and cross further downstream than the bank markers. It looked like the sandbanks had moved further downriver than the markers. Learning to “read” the river, we could see there was “flat” water over the sand and the wind was picking up bigger ripples where the water was deeper. We’d also noticed that, when we were coming up to a submerged

New tower blocks at Grudziadz

sandbar, the boat’s speed increased dramatically as it found slack water, increasing from 2 kph to 6 kph in no time. We backed off and tip-toed very gingerly across the river to the left hand side, downstream of the right hand markers on a right hand bend! As we crossed back to the left side, we could see the clearly defined downstream edge of the sand bar where the water cascaded over it. Then a team of three men in a fast boat that looked a bit like a dug-out canoe with a large outboard was coming down river crossing from side

Little yacht whizzing past heading downstream

to side. They were changing the bank markers!! Hopefully we will now miss the ends of the sandbanks! I took photos of them moving the goal posts. We were right! The sand was moving, rolling downstream, being churned along like sand dunes in a water covered desert. The wind started picking up at 11.45 a.m. I went in to make sandwiches for lunch at 12.30 p.m. Mike needed a spotter, so I left the sandwich making while we crossed back across the river. I finished making the

Exposed top of sand bank near Chelmno

sandwiches and we ate lunch whilst zig-zagging back and forth across the Wisła. A large bunch of mallard drakes and goosanders took off from a sandy beach, disturbed by our passage. Between KP 815/814 the bank markers had changed completely from when we came downriver. The channel had been routed along the other side of the river, right over on the left hand side at the start of a long left hand bend, downstream of Swiecie, a town practically invisible from the river. Mike’s charts of bank

Waterways lengthsmen changing the bank markers!

markers would have to be amended, which meant they would be of little use should we ever come here again. Upstream of the town there was a big sweeping right hand bend with a large sandbank on the inside. At 2.45 p.m. we could see the church towers of Chełmno in the distance. On the inside of the next big bend they had built four new stone groynes. More seagulls were standing on sand in mid-river at KP 811. Across the river, under the high girder road bridge at Chełmno and back

Speeding off to change more bank markers
to match the ever moving channel

across the river again to moor against a concrete capped piled quay that was higher than our cabin roofs. It was 4 pm when we tied at the upstream end.  Several car loads of people had come to watch. Mike gave Bill a hand to tie up behind us. A strange looking vessel set off from the waterways basin opposite and came steaming past us twice, then moored behind and an old chap came to chat to Bill, who was giving Fanny some grief and a bath as she’d found something smelly to roll in within seconds of tying up. Bad dog! Strange how

Chelmno and another sand bank

humans have no liking for eau-de-poisson-mort (perfume of dead rotting fish). Mike went to talk to the old chap. He told them that the return journey via the Warta from Bydgoszcz was prettier than the Notec and had fewer locks. 

Our visitor from across the river at Chelmno

Mike waiting with boat shaft to catch Bill's ropes

Sunday 5th June 2005 KP860 nr Grabowo to Grudziadz.

A bank marker lying on the river bank

11.9º C overnight. Fast flying clouds, windy, sunny spells and a torrential downpour and thunderstorm mid-afternoon. Mike was up at 7 am. and we were away for 8 am. Bill held the two boats stationery against the flow using Rosy’s engine, while Mike fetched the front pole in, then I reeled in the head rope. We’d tied up with all the mooring ropes around trees or stumps to be able to just reel them back in without getting off as it’s easier to get the plank in first. The countryside surrounding us was very beautiful, low hills on the right bank covered with forest, flood plain wilderness on the left and not a soul in sight. Mike did

The riverside town of Nowe

a slight change in tactics after watching the tug going downstream yesterday. He started off across the river before we came to the markers and aimed to reach the bank further upstream than the markers. Each crossing of the river, from channels that were anything from five to nine metres deep, into depths of less than two metres - after yesterday’s brush with disaster - was a bit nerve racking to say the least. Before long we could see the church tower at Nowe, up on its hill. An aeroplane (the same one as at Biała Góra

Gathering storm clouds

perhaps?) came flying low over us as he went following the course of the river. We waved and he replied with a waggle of the wings! Sadly, he’d gone too quickly to get a photo. The downstream marker cross downriver of Nowe, just upstream of KP854, was still missing - we saw it lying flat on the water’s edge, probably not in the correct place and no signs of the square that should accompany it. It was chilly, the wind was cold, so at 11 am. I made us a cup of soup. By midday we’d done 14.5 kms, speed averaging 3.7 kph. Took

A cruiser from Bydgoszcz heading downriver

photos of Nowe on its hill. We could see the towers of Grudziadz appearing in the far distance. A cruiser from Bydgoszcz came flying downriver. We waved, they waved back. I took photos. On our left a parascender had taken off from the big hill (87m) and was catching the updraught from the very strong south westerly wind. As we came level with the hill we could see the big gap in the trees where he had taken off from where there were a few people sitting. We ate lunch (salad in bowls) sat out on the

A parascender who had just taken off from the hills to our left

stern at 12.45 pm, I ate my lunch first, then steered while Mike ate his. At the speed we were going and with the force of the changing currents, the tiller was pushing too much for him to steer as he normally does when he needs two hands free for eating, leaning with his back on the handle and steering by moving bodily side to side. You almost needed two hands on the tiller to steer. As we got closer to Grudziadz, perched on its hill, the clouds became blacker and the wind picked up speed from strong to very, very strong. The rain started to fall in penny sized drops and distant lightning flashes caused crackles on the VHF radio

Dark clouds beyond the fortified town of Grudziadz

. Typical, it waits until we’re almost at our destination before it buckets down! Luckily it stopped before we reached the mooring place, an old arm where there was a sand quay on one bank and rough ground and a low quay wall on the other side. Mike dropped me off on the muddy bank (it had been under water until very recently and the thin layer of mud on concrete was extremely slippery) and I held the bow rope (just in case) as he winded the boat just out of the current in the entrance to the arm. It was 4 pm. Bill did likewise and

More dark clouds beyond the fortified town of Grudziadz

moored Rosy - with assistance from Mike - just in front of us in slack water. After I’d got all the wet things sorted out, I put the PC on to do the log and Mike went off for a walk round the local area. A few minutes later Bill gave a shout to see if Mike wanted to go on an exploration, so I told him he’d just gone and he could catch him if he hurried. The local population had turned out to watch us come into the arm - but they were on the far bank - a little later the local kids turned up to look at the funny boats from the side we’d

Moored at Grudziadz in an arm off the river

moored on. Mike returned having taken a few photos of the boats. Bill had gone on into the town to take photos of Grudziadz’s fortifications from the inside. 

Saturday 4th June 2005 Biała Góra Heading to KP860 nr Grabowko.

Wisla pouring through the breakwater at Biala Gora

Milder 14.1º C overnight. Grey clouds and occasional showers, windy, with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. The water level had gone down 30 cms overnight. Mike was up early, woken by the noisy bridge by the lock. Every time a vehicle went over it went bong-bong. (Almost like the “ding-ding” bridge at Strawberry Island.) We set off at 8.00 am. with lifejackets on (Editorial note: Ha! Must be serious for us to don likejackets! These Polish rivers are like no others we know of, flowing fast with

Heading upriver on the Wisla from Biala Gora.

frequent sandbanks to be avoided and bank markers indicating the channel to follow, binoculars are a very necessary tool for this). Out of the lock cut, where the causeway upstream of the lock cut was starting to show and water was gushing between the trees growing on it. The river was flowing at about 4 kph, we had engine revvs to do 8.5 kph and we were actually travelling at between 4 to 4.5 kph (according to the GPS) when we started off. As we moved over to the right bank the flow rate increased and knocked our

Ferry boat at Gniew

speed down to between 2 to 3 kph. At 9.15 am. we could see the town of Gniew in the distance. It would take us more than two hours to do the six kilometres to Gniew. We turned the first right hand bend, five kilometres from the start, after an hour and twenty minutes running time. Our speed was averaging 3.6 kph. At 10.45 we’d done 10 kms. Our speed over the riverbed had been down as low 1.8 kph and up as high as 5 kph. The cable ferry at Gniew was back at work (it had been out of action when we came downriver because the road was underwater). It was crawling across the river with three cars on board. On the next

Rosy passing the ferry at Gniew

bend, upstream of Janowo, there was a sandbank starting to emerge from the river which stretched halfway across. I took photos of the seagulls and terns which were walking on it. It started to spit with rain as we went through lots of swirling water passing the sandbank. In the far distance we could see the factory chimneys and the church towers of Kwidzyn. At midday we had good views of Gniew behind us. For lunch we had ham and salad sandwiches on the stern as yet another short light shower of rain started. At 1 pm. the cable ferry

Birds walking on an exposed sandbank at Janowo

at Opalenie/Krzenie came into view. We could still see Gniew behind us at 1.30 pm. More gulls on a sandbank on the right hand side just downstream of the ferry. The ferry was loaded up with cars to cross the river left to right, but it waited until the two of us crawled past before setting off. We hooted and waved. It was 2 pm. by the time we’d passed it. Just upstream of the ferry a stone groyne was almost visible on the right hand side, the water boiling over it was causing lots of turbulence in the river. Five hours after we first saw it, we could still see Gniew. It was a shame that the nice looking off-line basin and

The ferry at Opalinie

quay by the ferry were not ten kilometres further upstream. We carried on, hoping to find a good mooring after we’d done battle with the river for around 30 kms. The rain showers got heavier and the wind picked up in strength. We saw our last glimpse of Gniew at 2.30 pm. As we approached the ruins of a railway bridge, where only the stumps of the supporting piers were left, the channel was over 8m deep. It was 2.45 pm. when we started to turn left following the bank markers, which indicated the channel went across the river from right to

Water pouring over the downstream edge
of a submerged sandbank near Opalinie

left close to the old bridge. I was taking photos, when suddenly we were no longer making forward progress. Stuck on another Wisła sandbank!! I called Bill on VHF to tell him not to follow where we’d gone as we were on the bottom. Mike tried powering it off and it didn’t budge. Just then the ‘phone rang – it was Vision Express in Bydgoszcz ringing to tell him his glasses were ready. What timing! Then rain was getting heavier too. I went to check around the hull with a shaft to find where we were stuck and how deep the water was. We had a sandbank to our left, the front port side of the boat was hard aground showing three inches of hull which should have been wet. Bill came to have a rope and pull with Rosy. Mike managed to get the

Approaching the demolished railway bridge in pouring rain

rope around his small jackstaff on the bow breaking it off with the rope and Bill’s pilot jack went sailing off down the Wisła. (He’d got another one but Mike said he would buy him a new one later) Once the rope was attached, Bill tried pulling us off by reversing Rosy. It didn’t move. I went inside and (trying hard not to panic) moved all the moveable heavy stuff; mud weights, coal scuttle, HF radio, microwave, plus all the tools and my sewing machine - all from the left side to the right - to make the boat list away from where it was

The rest of the demolished railway bridge

aground. Meanwhile, under Mike’s instruction, Bill carefully turned Rosy so he could pull our stern with Rosy in forward gear. That worked. Thank goodness! Bill now qualifies for Tugmaster! (Honorary title given by us to anyone who has rescued another narrowboat stuck on the mud/sand, whatever) Relieved, I went in the cabin to put all the gear back and restore the boat back to normal – ie, without a severe list to starboard. The heavens opened and thunder crashed. Mike and Bill decided to try crossing over the river downstream of where they thought the sandbank ended - well before the bank

Rosy powering through the demolished railway bridge

markers. We went slowly across the river at forty five degrees, eyes glued to the echo sounder, until we were in the deeper channel on the left bank. A big sigh of relief went up. Then we had the gap between the end two railway bridge piers to contend with. The water was flowing very fast through the gap (we reckoned that after the bridge was destroyed the other gaps between the piers were left filled with rubble and only the one gap was dredged out and made navigable), we were doing good speed through the water but going nowhere – l

Gniew

ooking at the banks told us we were not moving forward. Mike increased engine revvs to almost maximum, wriggled the boat from side to side and we began very gradually to crawl through the demolished railway bridge. That was almost worse than being stuck on the sandbank.  A couple more passages from one bank to the other, following the bank markers, but without much confidence now, done very gingerly when the echo sounder showed less than 1m, Mike reduced the engine revvs right down to tick over, ready to stop and back off, until the echo showed more water beneath us. Our nerves were in tatters, so we started looking for somewhere to moor, we’d hd enough for one day. A small yacht went past

The passing tug and pan

us, heading downstream really flying along under sail, going with the wind and current. We pulled gradually over to the left hand bank by the next set of channel markers and I threw a rope from our bows around an old tree stump and we tied up with Rosy alongside. Mike and Bill put our long poles out to the bank to keep the boats off the bottom and put ropes around more trees at the stern ends. We were in the wilderness with grass as far as you could see, but within minutes of tying up we heard the voices of some people walking past at the top of the bank. We didn’t think they saw us, it must have been either fishermen or poachers. A tug and pan went downriver just after we tied up, we wondered if they knew about the sandbank in the channel below the railway bridge and expected that they would be much better informed than we were. 

Click here to go to loads of info on the Vistula on Wikipedia

Sunday 29th May & Monday 30th May 2005 Gdanska Głowa lk to yacht club Neptun on Wisła Smiała.

Sunday 29th May 2005  Gdanska Głowa lock.

Map of the Wisla (Vistula) delta rivers

11.8º C overnight Sunny, cool breeze. Mike got up at 8 a.m. when Bill knocked to ask for help with getting Rosy off the bottom as the level had dropped by 6” and he couldn’t budge it. It wouldn’t move just shoving on poles, so Mike used Bill’s pole as a lever, driving it vertically in the mud then levering against the counter. The plank was just long enough to reach the bank. Mike went to work in the engine room. He cleaned Arsène’s casserole (engine cooling water filter given to us by Arsène and it’s as big as a saucepan) out again – half full of weed again. A large white cruiser came and moored by the lock, the crew went to see the lock keeper and then went through the lock, and we thought that they said the lock was closed on Sundays? At 11.15 a.m. another yacht arrived and then went away again. Mike checked on the state of the brass water pump that he had re-engineered. He intended to change the impeller, but there was no need, it was in as good a state as when he redesigned the pump. He found a water leak in the cold water supply pipe to the hot water tank (must have been all the bumping and rocking on the trollies that caused that – it would find any weak links anywhere on the boat, just like the Polish roads do for cars!) He resealed one joint, then another one started leaking when I pressurised the system. Then they wouldn’t reseal with new ptfe tape, so he decided to use hemp and Templars paste. He couldn’t find any Templars but Bill had some new stuff, so he used some of that. Lunch. Mike set the gennie up to watch the motor racing as the 12v system was down to 11V. German Grand Prix from Nürburgring. Later he had another go at the camera, it still didn’t look good. I made a stirfried pork saté for dinner.

30th May 2005  Gdanska Głowa lk to yacht club Neptun on Wisła Smiała.

Gdanska Glowa lock Wikimedia photo by Lukas Katelwa

A mild night. Cloudy with a chilly breeze (rain and thunderstorms later) as we went into Gdanska Głowa lock at 8.00 a.m. The large manually operated lock was worked for us by a very thin and fragile-looking old man. A woman did the paperwork, both looked as miserable as can be. Bill went to pay her. When he came back he said it was nice to see people who really enjoyed their jobs (sarcasm, not this pair!) The lock filled, raising the boat 1.6m on to the level of the river Wisła. Out on to the river, still looking brimful and flowing fast, turning right and running downstream with the flow. Mike stopped

Gdanska Glowa lock Wikimedia photo by Lukas Katelwa

the boat dead in the water to check the speed, it was about 6 kph. In no time we made the short fast run down to the lock at Przegalina, which was a much larger modern lock than the one we’d just come up, the lock edges were painted in bright shades of green and yellow. Before we turned left, ahead of us we could see the Baltic, looking calm and flat. Two more unhappy looking old men worked the lock, one to press the buttons and the other to take the money – we even had change from our 12 Złotys! We dropped down just 1m. As we left the chamber, I made a mental note to video the wooden lock house on our return

Przegalina lock - Wikimedia photo by Yarlu FileBot

trip. I made a cuppa as we motored on down the Martwa Wisła, an arm of the river which goes through Gdansk. Everything was going well until we came to the road bridge at Sobieszewka at 10.45 a.m. The bridge was a bailey bridge with a moveable floating pontoon section in the middle. Lots of road traffic was rumbling slowly across the bumpy wooden decking. We hooted, no signs of life. In Jerzy Hopfer’s book (Polish waterways expert, book given to us by EHS boat club) it said the bridge opens mornings and late afternoons – whatever time that means.

Przegalina lock - Wikimedia photo by Pumeks

We dropped anchor and waited, there was nowhere to tie to the banks. There were thick black clouds over Gdansk coming our way. Thunder rumbled and rain began to pour. The boat pivoted through all four points of the compass around the anchor rope. Lunch. A man in a small fishing boat came under the bridge (if only it had been a few centimetres higher we could have got underneath it too) and came to talk to us in the rain. Where were we from? (In Polish) Mike told him and tried to ask what time the bridge opened, there was no board giving times. He went away and came back five minutes later with an atlas – he wanted Mike to show him

Przegalina lock - Wikimedia photo by Nandi

where we had come from and how we got there. He said the bridge opens in an hour (or at one o’clock – as it was midday it came to the same thing). Just before 1pm several workmen appeared and shut the road barriers to prevent traffic crossing the bridge then started winding something in the middle of the bridge deck. Mike started the engine and went to lift the anchor, just as a squall hit. I had to get the brolly down quickly as the wind was blowing a howling gale, threatening to break it, and the rain was really hammering down. I powered the bows round into the wind so that Mike

Sobieszewka swingbridge - Wikimedia photo by Merlin

could lift the anchor and the fender that he’d used as a marker buoy. To our amazement the workmen opened the road barriers again for road traffic to cross, then they went away again! We circled. Lightening flashed and thunder crashed for ten minutes. As the rain eased off they came back and started up the motor to drive the centre section to one side so we could pass through. It was 1.10 p.m. The outside temperature had dropped from 24º C to 12ºC! As we pushed on down the river violet flashes of lightening lit up the sky, one hit the ground very close to us as a tremendous crash of thunder rolled down the river. We decided to find somewhere to stop as soon as

Lower Wisla looking to Baltic - Wikimedia photo by Pumeks

possible as continuing might have proved dangerous. The river swung round to the north becoming the Wisła Smiała, which emptied into the Baltic just a kilometre further on, and we turned left into a smaller river channel where there was a yacht club located on the corner. All the yachts were moored bows or sterns to the bank. As we passed the end of the line we saw a section of wooden walkway we could tie alongside, so Mike asked Bill on the radio if he wanted to tie on to it and we would carry on up the narrow channel (we were now going against the flow) until we came to a wider section by a shipyard where we could turn round and head back to the yacht club. When we winded and went back Bill had turned and was waiting for us to go alongside so he could attach to us. The rain had stopped.

Wisła Smiała - Wikimedia photo by Pumeks

Several people came out to help including a man and a woman who spoke good English. The river flow at the junction was going in a circular direction making mooring difficult. To complicate matters there were rocks along the bank edge. Mike put a pole out to keep the bows off the rocks and the club members moved a yacht which was behind us so that we could slide back a bit. Bill brought Rosy alongside and we moored up. A very chatty lot, they wanted to know where we’d come from and where we were going. Fanny got the star treatment, everyone threw sticks for her. Mike ran a cable out so we could have electricity and Bill bought some cans of beer at 2 Zł each from them. The overnight charge was 60 Zł each (a little under £10). The club was called JKM Neptun. Another downpour sent us inside to get sorted out, then when it stopped Mike ran a cable out and connected up to their electricity supply. Bill found the hoses out, we refilled our water tanks and got rid of our rubbish. Meanwhile the bloke who owned the steel yacht behind us turned up and started a barney over the fact that his boat had been moved closer to his neighbour’s boat, which was plastic and had a fancy alarm system on board (if it went off they had to get the owner to come and turn it off as no one else knew the code for it). The lady who had been helping us got very upset and went back on her boat. The man (her boyfriend) came to say how sorry he was that the man should make such a scene in front of visitors. We said it was OK, we belong to a boat club - we know what it’s like – every club has at least one member who behaves like that! Mike had another session trying to repair the camera and condemned it as being unfixable. The shutter worked again, but the electronics didn’t. He said he might have another look at it later before he finally decides to bin it (he hates to be defeated when it comes to fixing anything). 

Monday 16th May 2005 above Biała Góra lock R Nogat to Malbork.

Heavy rain in the night. 8.2º C overnight. Grey, overcast, windy, a few showers and sunny spells later. Mike went to have a word with the lock keeper and found two dozen workmen in green overalls wandering around on the lockside. None spoke any English. One group of them said we could go through the lock in two hours’ time – and another group just kept saying yes,yes,yes! He came back to the boat and got on with a few jobs. At ten o’clock there was no sign of life on the lockside, so Mike went back up the flood protection bank to the lock and there was no one to be seen, they must have been on a tea break. At 10.45 they started to wind the

lock gates open, so we unlashed from the bank and fetched the plank in and took the two boats in still tied side by side. A cable was across the lock, two men on each side lifted it up to let us pass underneath. I put the centre rope round an inset bollard in the wall and Mike did likewise with the stern. Bill hopped off with a big bag of rubbish for the bins and had to climb over scaffolding to get along the lockside where the men had been replacing the brickwork. The lock keeper (he had blue overalls on) wound a paddle and we descended. I let the boat run forward so the

bows were close enough to a ladder for Bill to climb back down on to the boat. We dropped down 2.3 metres from the river Wisła (which was actually in flood) above, to a full-to-the-brim river Nogat below. It was 10.55 a.m. The Nogat was much narrower than the Wisła, with high flood protection dykes set close to the edges at first, but widening out later. The river was fringed with reed beds and beyond the reeds there were cultivated fields of colza already in bloom. There was very little flow, although the keeper at Biała Góra was running lots of water down off the Wisła. Three startled red deer galloped away across a field as we

approached them. I made a cup of tea and some sandwiches as we travelled the 14 kms to the next lock. We arrived at Szonowo at 12.45 p.m. No signs of life. We tied up in the lock mouth to wait for the keeper to emerge. Mike got off to find the keeper. A lady keeper made out a till ticket for us and wanted money, but Mike couldn’t understand how much. It turned out we hadn’t paid at the first lock – well no one asked us for any money! So we paid 25 Złotys for the two boats for two locks as we were short of change as usual and so were the keeper and her husband (what’s new?). The price should be 6,40 Złotys per boat per lock. More expensive than the Bromberg canal and Notec, who only charged us 5,68 Złotys per boat (Note the exchange rate was roughly 6 Złotys to the pound). Mike asked if there was drinking water available, no, not

there, two locks further on. We dropped down a further 1.7m and pressed on into Malbork. The town was perched above the flood banks, most of the houses were almost hidden from view. The red brick fortress built by the Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages was very imposing. Took a few photos of Rosy with the castle as a background. We found a mooring quay marked with a “P” and tied up right by the castle gates. It was 2.15 p.m. It was quiet when we arrived, but soon there were coachloads of schoolkids arriving, crossing the footbridge to the castle and generally making a lot of noise. Mike suggested that Bill would get around the town better

on his bike than he would on foot, and he asked if Bill could collect our post, which he did. The post had arrived from the UK, but there were no maps from our friend Hans in Germany. Bill had found an internet café so the two of them went back into town to have a session on the internet. I sent Hans a text and he replied that he had sent the maps on the 23^rd April to Malbork as promised. The internet café was being run by a fifteeen year old girl and the place was full of twelve year old lads playing games on the PCs. They crowded round Mike and Bill like starving refugee kids, but it was information they wanted, not food. There were no printers, so Mike couldn’t get a copy of our April ‘phone bill. Bill had a message for us on his web site, which he told us was getting over 100 visits a day, the message was from our niece bringing us up to date with family news. We had no satellite TV so we watched the weather forecast on Polish TV - sunshine and showers.

Friday 13th May 2005 Brda lock to abv Biała Góra lock Nogat. 124 kms no locks

A cold night down to 2º C, but it was sunny - the break in the weather had arrived. Off at last! Mike was up at 5.30 a.m. to get ready for lock opening time at 7.00 a.m. At 6.45 a.m. a tug arrived, pushing a pan, and went into the lock, so we followed it in. Bill went off to pay for the lock and got back on board just before the keeper pulled the plug and we started to descend. We followed the commercial out of the lock

down the short channel to the Wisła. The gauge below the lock was registering another 5 cms drop in the water level. Once we reached the river Mike turned upstream, avoiding three fishermen in a small power boat, and checked to see how fast the river was flowing. He reckoned the flow rate was between five and six kph. We turned and ran downstream with revvs for 6.5 kph and did

11.5 kph over the bed. Started chasing bank markers, X’s on the left bank and crossing over to the +’s on the right bank. The pan and tug had turned and were heading back upstream to join up with the dredger, which was just above the bridge at Fordon. We crossed to the right by the dredger, then swung back to the left for the road bridge. A couple of waterways boats were

moored just downstream of the bridge on the left bank. There were lots of fishermen along the left hand bank and a couple of tiny sail boats moored on the right. I made a cup of soup to warm us up, the wind was bitterly cold, as we approached Chelmo, K802, the spires of the old town on the right bank and factory chimneys on the left. Under Chelmo road bridge at a few minutes before eleven o’clock. We passed a tug

pushing two pans, battling upstream against the current near Swiecie K811. There were cliffs along the left bank and a picnic area, which was occupied by a family, by the hills at KP815. The multi-coloured tower blocks on the hills of Grudziadz came into view. We zig-zgged back and forth across the river practically every kilometer. I made some coffee. Changed the film in the camera and took photos of the fortified town of Grudziadz as we went flying past it. The buttressed walls were topped with houses, it looked very impressive from the water. The wind picked up. A

parascender was attempting to take off on the right bank, the curled pink wing lifting into the air and descending again. On a wide stretch the waves started getting bigger, encouraged by the wind against the flow. A large hill on the right bank reached up to the giddy height of 87.8metres. A white tailed eagle was being persecuted by three brave crows as we passed the slopes of the big hill. The wind was very strong

right in our faces as we neared Nowe, where two tall churches stood on the hill. I took photos of some strangely formed flat-bottomed clouds. It was still windy as the river bends took us to the east with wooded hills on our left, we expected some shelter from the wind but got none. The anitquated ferry at Korzenieowo, KP 867, was out of action as the road on the left bank was under water. There appeared to be a smart

looking offline basin with boats moored in it just downstream of the ferry – maybe to be investigated on the way back! As we reached Lipianki the waves became more sploshy, but this eased off as we reared Gniew, another town perched on the hills on our left. This town had several interesting towers and a huge square building which was probably a monastery. Downstream of the town was another ferry,

Bill's photo of the boats moored on the Vistula
waiting for the stop planks to come out

also out of service as the road on the right bank was also submerged beneath the waters of the Wisła. It was 7 p.m. when we arrived at the junction with the river Nogat. Calamity! The lock was out of action, stop planks barred our way! We threw ropes around trees, called Rosy on to the inside and chucked a plank off the stern for the dog and Bill to get on and off. Bill went to have a look. He said they were doing maintenance

work. Mike went to investigate too but there was no one to ask when the stoppage would be over. We were very glad to be here but wondered how long we would have to wait for the lock repairs to be finished. Friday the 13^th!!